Certain automatic emergency call systems which significantly shorten the recovery times after an accident are conventional. Examples of these systems are described German Published Patent Application No. 29 12 547, German Published Patent Application No. 33 36 092, German Published Patent Application No. 38 39 959, German Published Patent Application No. 42 20 963, German Published Patent Application No. 43 21 416, German Published Patent Application No. 44 21 508, German Published Patent Application No. 44 21 960, German Published Patent Application No. 196 44 445, German Published Patent Application No. 196 50 176 and German Published Patent Application No. 198 36 118.
Depending on the configuration of the emergency call system, in the event of an accident an emergency call is transmitted to an emergency call center automatically or when an emergency call button on a mobile radio system mounted on board the vehicle or a mobile phone carried on the person is activated. Such an emergency call may be configured, for example, in accordance with German Published Patent Application No. 38 39 959, in the form of an emergency call telegram which, in addition to the position of the vehicle involved in the accident, also includes data relating to the vehicle such as the keeper of the vehicle, the registration number, the type of the vehicle, the color of the vehicle and the hazard class in the case of bulk goods transporters and/or data relating to an accident situation, such as the severity of an accident, the acceleration profile before the crash, triggered vehicle occupant protection devices, etc.
The position of the motor vehicle involved in the accident is usually calculated by a satellite-supported location determining system but a locating process of a mobile radio device which is located on board may also be used for this purpose.
The data relating to the vehicle and the data relating to vehicle occupants can be stored in the motor vehicle in a memory which is fixed to the vehicle or else on a chip card carried on the person, it being also possible to provide in the case of individual emergency call systems that the data stored in the memory is updated before the journey is started, for example, by manual input.
Conventional emergency call systems permit perceptible gain in time in the rescue phase after the vehicle has been involved in an accident by virtue of shortened search times and a shortened driving time to the location of the accident, and the medical treatment can be improved due to quickly available information about the current injury situation of the casualties of the accident and, if appropriate, individual medical information on specific persons.
However, the recovery of casualties still appears problematic in many cases. In order to save lives in the case of relatively serious accidents, the recovery forces must be able to access the injured as quickly as possible without exposing themselves or the injured to additional danger. However, a precondition for this is knowledge about vehicle-specific access possibilities and the method of functioning and the method of operation of the safety systems of the motor vehicle involved in the accident.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,377,165 describes an emergency call system in which rescue personnel can read out stored data relating to the configuring state of an airbag, to the temperature, to the analysis of a collision and other data relating to the vehicle by pressing a data switch, in response to which the data is displayed by a display device. The display device is integrated into the vehicle or the display unit of a navigation system is used. There is, however, no mention of the problem that in many cases it may be very difficult for the rescue personnel to request the outputting of data if, for example, the interior of the vehicle is not readily accessible due to jammed vehicle doors.
It is conventional to make available such information in book form, but such publications may have the disadvantage that current new developments are only included in the corresponding publications after a delay. Furthermore, access to the correct information for the rescue forces may be difficult since reference works which document the entire range of models of a manufacturer are correspondingly comprehensive and the relevant parts of text which relate to the vehicle involved in an accident may be awkward to find.